Belonging
by servantofclio
Summary: Three good friends. What if two of them became more than friends? Where does the third fit in? Tali/Garrus/ManShep
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: OK, this story is a bit of a departure from my previous stories. Originally requested by Smehur (whose stories are fabulous, go check them out), it can be seen as a followup to my story "Interspecies Dating Consultants." I originally intended that story as one of platonic friendship. Smehur suggested another possibility: "I had the feeling like Tali was hiding more-than-friendly feelings for Garrus behind a "you're like a brother to me" kind of attitude and I'd like to see this situation explored. So, Shepard and Garrus are together, and Tali is secretly in love with Garrus." So, in this story, platonic friendship becomes more (much more) for all three of Garrus, Tali, and Shepard. If this doesn't sound like your cup of tea, well, there are many other stories out there that may please you more. M rating for a reason.

Additional note: I currently intend for this to be the first in a series of stories exploring the relationship(s) among this particular trio as they experience the events of the game, and possibly beyond. This, however, is Tali's story.

* * *

><p>Tali woke up, not quite sure where she was. Not her usual bunk. She was surrounded by warmth, but there was something hard, with noticeable edges, pressing into her on one side, and something lying across her waist. She opened her eyes, letting them adjust to the dim light. Blue light, coming from a large oblong object ahead of her and to the right...<p>

Shepard's fish tank.

What was she doing in Shepard's quarters? What was she doing... on Shepard's _bed_?

She turned her head. Shepard was lying on her right. The weight lying across her was Shepard's arm. His face was turned toward her, his mouth open a little. She almost smiled at the utterly slack expression. So if Shepard was there... she turned her head the other direction.

Garrus was lying on her left, his back toward her. Well, that explained the hard edges. It didn't quite explain what they were all doing there. Keelah, how much had she drunk at Eternity last night? She tried to remember. She and Garrus had been swapping stories for an hour or two, and she'd been having a nice quarian liqueur, and then that other turian had come by, and then Shepard had joined them. Somewhere in there Garrus had insisted she try turian brandy. She had a hazy memory of the asari bartender threatening to biotically shove the lot of them out of the club, and another of the three of them staggering down Illium's streets, laughing. Garrus had actually been much further gone than she was, by that point. She was relieved that quarians didn't suffer after drinking the way most other species did.

She didn't actually remember getting back to the Normandy, though, nor what had possessed them to sprawl on Shepard's bed together.

Carefully, she picked up Shepard's arm and tucked it down next to his side. She stared at his hand a moment. So many fingers.

Now she could move, but she hesitated, looking from one friend to the other. Both men, she realized, had stripped down-not completely, but both were out of armor. She felt a moment's sharp envy of both of them, that it was so easy to peel off their layers, expose skin. Shepard was wearing some kind of shorts, and that was all. She stared at the broad expanse of his back, bared skin covering muscle and bone. Her eyes were adjusted to the light now; she could see fine surgical scars, the remnants of his resurrection. Garrus, on the other hand, was wearing his underarmor. It covered most of him, but was so snug it didn't conceal much. He looked smaller out of armor. Shepard was less bulky, too, but the turian was all trim, lean angles, looking strangely vulnerable. The blue light from the tank cast shadows over the rough scars on his face and neck.

She sat up, cautiously, but neither man moved. She hesitated, considering a certain temptation, and gave in. She ran one finger down Shepard's spine, from neck to waist. He sighed a little, but didn't stir. Emboldened, she reached for that strange human hand, running her own fingers over his thinner ones. His fingers twitched, and she quickly pulled her hand away.

She let Shepard settle, and turned her attention to Garrus. Something felt incomplete about touching one, but not the other, and she was curious what that tough turian hide felt like in contrast to smooth human skin. She traced her fingers lightly along that ridge that lay around his neck. To her surprise, she heard a low rumble start in his chest, and felt him shift slightly, into the touch rather than away. Startled, she stopped moving, and felt her friend relax back into the bed.

What to do now? She didn't want to wake them. Carefully, she scooted herself forward, until she could clamber off the bed. She checked her suit then; all seals intact, no loose connections, in spite of sleeping pressed against two companions. She turned and looked at them again. Garrus half rolled over into the space she'd vacated, with a little grumbling noise that brought her a wave of affection. She felt a little shame, too, for giving in to her curiosity when they couldn't refuse. Quietly, she slipped out of the room.

* * *

><p>Tali busied herself with work the rest of the cycle, brushing off Ken's jokes about coming on-shift so late. But she felt strangely unsettled, her mind flitting back to waking wedged next to a warm body-how strange that was, even after the cramped conditions of the Flotilla, and yet how comfortable.<p>

When her hands were busy with routine maintenance and systems checks, she thought back to the day before. It still amused her that he had assumed she and Garrus were a couple. She idly wondered what it would be like, a turian and a quarian together, and then dismissed it. Intimacy was hard enough for quarian couples. She hoped that turian on Illium knew what he was getting into. What assumptions he'd made... did he think any male and female out for drinks were an item? Of course she loved Garrus, she could hardly ask for a better friend, but he was also the one who'd needled her about the geth and the Morning War and her immune system until she threatened him with a shotgun, and who was too cocky for his own good, and who was irritatingly uncommunicative when he chose to be. It was ridiculous to think they were anything more than friends. Garrus had looked terribly annoyed when she started laughing, though... she should check in and make sure he wasn't really upset. It would be easy to tell if he was, because of the silent brooding.

Midway through the shift, her terminal lit up with the signal that Garrus's was on. She had an alert set so they could check in about the weapons systems. Or, sometimes, just chat.

tzorah: not too hanged over from last night I hope.

gvakarian: hung over. I'll live.

tzorah: think i drank you under the table

gvakarian: I honestly don't remember

tzorah: how's shepard

gvakarian: also alive

tzorah: check the power draw from the main array for me when you get a chance

gvakarian: will do

She felt more relaxed, then, the world of the ship back in its proper routine. At the end of the shift, she let Ken and Gabby head up to the mess for dinner without her, finishing up a last bit of work, and then went up herself with a bounce in her step. Shepard and Garrus were sitting at the same table, side by side. Tali smiled to herself and headed to join them. The two men were talking; she saw Garrus lean toward Shepard and say something with a lopsided mandible flare, and...

... was Shepard... _blushing_?

Tali froze in place for a second. There was a thread of intimacy running between the two that made her breath stutter and her heart clench.

What had happened after she left Shepard's quarters?

Had she... missed something?

Shepard looked up then, saw her, and waved her over. The world restarted, snapped back to normal. She joined them, and teased Shepard about his drunken singing the night before, and everything was as it should be.

Except she couldn't help feeling that something had changed, somewhere. She just wasn't sure what or where.


	2. Chapter 2

That sense of something being just slightly off, out of place, persisted over the next several cycles. She joined Shepard and Garrus for a few ground missions. As they fought their way through waves of mechs, the three of them fell into step like she was used to, covering each other, each knowing what the other two were going to do almost before they did it. And then afterwards, the two men would exchange a _look_, or one would slap the other on the ass when they thought she wasn't looking, and they were out of sync again. Tali felt obscurely left out, and wasn't sure if it was her imagination.

And what if there _was_ something between them? Shouldn't she be happy, if her friends were happy together? Why should that make her feel twisted up and alone? Keelah, was she... jealous?

Jealous of _what_? Maybe she'd had a little crush on Shepard, once upon a time; she'd given that up long ago. Shepard was charming with everyone, and everyone got drawn in by the charm, but there was never anything more to it than that. She couldn't be jealous about Shepard, any more than...

No. Oh, no, she was not jealous about Garrus, either. They were just friends, it wasn't like she'd been pining for him over the last two years...

... though she had worried, between his brief, cryptic, and infrequent messages...

No. That turian from Eternity had just planted silly ideas in her head.

She was almost relieved when she stopped going on ground missions for a while, since she was busy dealing with the engine upgrades. When the Illusive Man sent them to the Collector Ship, Shepard took Garrus and Samara with him. Tali frowned. She didn't like it, and she didn't trust the Illusive Man. She tuned her terminal into the ground team's audio channel, and with only a little work found she was able to hack into their helmet cams. Samara wasn't using one, but she got the feed from Shepard's, and from Garrus's visor.

They wouldn't do any work on the engines now, of course, in case they needed to leave in a hurry, but she ran routine diagnostics while she kept an eye and ear on the feeds. She listened in horror as the situation abruptly took a turn for the worse, and soon stopped working entirely, her eyes glued to the camera feeds. She found herself murmuring encouragement and warnings as the team made their way toward the exit point, working well together, cutting their way through the Collector drones with precision. Then that beetle-like monstrosity appeared, and a _horde_ of husks, and she fell into silence, watching as Shepard kept moving, using his particle beam to sear away at the creature, trying to keep away from its beam attack himself. She was so focused on Shepard's view that it took her a little while to realize that Garrus's camera had stopped moving. Was fixed at an awkward angle of the floor. She gripped the sides of her terminal hard, wanting to shout a warning that Shepard couldn't hear. Did he not see?... or, no, he knew, he was deliberately leading the thing away, he was just preoccupied with dealing with the enemy with a shorthanded team. Her heart was pounding, her breath rasping in her own ears like a ventilation unit about to break down, her body filled with utterly useless adrenalin.

Shepard finally downed the thing, and rushed to the fallen turian, administering medigel and muttering under his breath: "Come on, Garrus, come on, hang in there..." Tali could hear the strain of anxiety in Shepard's voice as if it was her own, fairly holding her breath until Garrus finally coughed and sat up. She closed her eyes and sagged in place, listening as her friends made their way through the last round of husks, but she couldn't watch any more. She felt tears gather under her eyelids, but tried to blink them back.

Oh, keelah. Why had she not seen it before? _Of course she loved Garrus_. And it _wasn't fair_ that Shepard had finally gone beyond easy charm and mild flirtation and made a move, before she knew what she wanted, leaving her all alone.

* * *

><p>She smacked Garrus on the shoulder the next time she saw him, and told him not to scare Shepard like that, and he laughed and promised to duck better.<p>

But her insides felt twisted up in knots, and her mind wandered to inappropriate places no matter how hard she tried to restrain it. Such as when she was sitting in a team briefing, getting bored, and drew a very lewd and speculative little doodle on her datapad. Which shortly thereafter flashed up a message:

kgoto: that's not what a naked turian looks like

Horrified, Tali glanced sideways at the thief. Who, yes, was sitting at an angle where she could see over Tali's shoulder. She was pretty sure no one else could see, though; in fact, everyone else seemed to be paying attention to whatever Miranda was talking about.

kgoto: think long not thick

tzorah: how do you know

kgoto: i see all sorts of things

tzorah: you are not seriously spying on the mens showers

kgoto: of course not ;)

kgoto: if you want to talk about it i have drinks

Tali didn't want to talk about it. What was there to talk about? If her friends were happy together-and she was pretty sure she was not just imagining things-she was not going to interfere. And she was not going to run back to the Flotilla, either. She couldn't go, knowing they'd continue after the Collectors without her, knowing they might not come back.

She checked the extranet, and Kasumi was right about the anatomy. Her dreams became more vivid and particular than usual. She woke from them, alone, aroused and frustrated and cross. She thought about activating her nerve stimulator, but debated with herself. Was it wrong, letting herself fantasize about a friend, without his knowledge? It felt oddly invasive. No, she told herself. No one needed to know, no one was getting hurt. She lay back and activated the program, imagining what she wanted: to be touched, to have someone else's hands on her skin, rough textured but gentle, stroking her breasts, probing between her legs. She turned off her helmet's audio output, so her moans of pleasure were confined to her own space. And she imagined being penetrated, deeply and languorously filled, pressed against her dearest friend's body, hands against her rear, pulling her into him, maybe touching between her buttocks too...

The program brought her to her climax, her body arching, a long low cry drawn from her lungs. And she came back to herself, alone in her bunk, feeling spent, as the suit began mindlessly processing her sweat.

She was glad that no one could see her blush, when she ran into Garrus in the mess at the start of the next shift.

It was later that cycle that she got the message from the admiralty board.


	3. Chapter 3

Tali hadn't planned to burden Shepard with her problems. She was only going to ask for leave, to seek passage back to the Migrant Fleet. But Shepard wouldn't hear of it.

"Of course we'll take you," he said. "This has to be a mistake, but I'm not going to leave you to deal with this bullshit alone."

And Garrus, eyes flashing: "No one who really knew you could ever think you were a traitor."

Neither of them would let her board the Rayya alone. She was grateful, almost pathetically so, to have them with her, twin bulwarks at her side as her own people lobbed one bombshell after another at her. Her name. The charges. Her _father_. Tali couldn't believe Auntie Raan would do this to her, but there she was. She let Shepard do the talking, working his Shepard magic, trying to get something out of the admirals. Garrus put an arm around her shoulders and just stayed, silent, letting her compose herself, and prepare for the fight they had ahead, to retake the Alarei. She hoped, desperately, that she would find her father and he could answer all her questions, and she feared, desperately, that she would not like the answers.

Fighting geth was so easy for them that it did not occupy her mind enough. Tali fretted and argued with Shepard. Even so, he held her when they found her father, armored arms hard yet still comforting. She couldn't see his eyes well enough behind his helmet while she pleaded with him to leave Rael's memory intact. She wasn't sure what he'd do.

She left the Fleet an exile. For once the Shepard charm wasn't enough. But Shepard... Shepard was true to her, and they took her father's secrets with them to the Normandy.

* * *

><p>Garrus found her sitting on the floor, staring into the glow of the drive core. She heard his familiar steps coming down the corridor after her.<p>

"Tali?"

"I'm all right," she said listlessly.

"I can tell you're not."

"I still can't quite believe they exiled me."

"Politics," he said, his voice laced with bitterness. "It's not about you. It's about the geth and the homeworld and their own agendas."

A moment passed. She said, "I can't believe my father..." and her voice cracked.

Garrus dropped down beside her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and that nearly broke her. She hated crying in the suit, how her faceplate fogged up before the moisture reclamation system started its work, how she couldn't even wipe the tears off her cheeks, but she couldn't help it now. She all but collapsed into him, letting him hold her up, sobbing until she had no tears left. He was out of armor for once, she realized, feeling the heat of his body through his shirt and her suit. "I thought one day he'd finally tell me he was proud of me."

She felt his laugh rumbling through his chest, and liked it, even though it wasn't a happy laugh. "For some people, nothing is ever good enough." He went on, voice soft and dark, "They don't see you. They see some vision of who they think you are, what they think you should want."

She hugged him back, remembering how they'd talked about impossible fathers, once a long time ago, and rested her helmet against his shoulder. "I just don't know what to do now. I can't go back to the Flotilla. Quarians are unwelcome so many places, I don't know where I'll go."

His arms tightened around her. "What are you talking about? You belong here."

"Sure, for now," she said. "But what about later? This mission isn't going to last forever, and who knows what will happen afterward. I just-" she felt another sob rising in her throat, and choked on it "-I don't know where I fit! Even if I weren't exiled, I don't know if I'd want to deal with Fleet politics any more, and outside the Fleet there are only a handful of people I really know and trust..."

"Tali, I don't fit anywhere either. I haven't been home in over three years, and my father's all but disowned me. Shepard has no family, and is cast out of the Alliance. Why shouldn't the three of us stick together? You don't have to go anywhere, no matter what happens," Garrus said.

She pulled herself back, frustrated, and got to her feet, pacing. "Do you think I don't see how you look at each other? I don't want to be just an... an extra, Garrus! I need to belong somewhere, not be an outsider in somebody else's love affair." She turned to face him, and found him still sitting on the ground, looking up at her with an odd expression. "What?" she demanded.

"I... didn't realize you knew." He looked off to the side, and she finally translated the expression: embarrassed. "I thought we'd been pretty discreet."

Why did he have to be so cute when he was sheepish? Tali sighed, exasperated. "Well, I know you better than most of the crew does. And I..." She stopped, abruptly.

"You what?" Garrus stood, and stepped toward her, looking at her intently.

"You're my best friends," she said. She meant to stop there, but it just spilled out of her. "And I should be happy for you and I am, partly, but you have something I'm not part of and I hate it, I hate feeling like an outsider, it feels so unfair. You have each other, and I can't go home to the Fleet, and I don't have anybody..."

She stopped talking, because Garrus had crossed the distance between them and put his hands on her shoulders.

"What if you could be part of it?"

She blinked up at him and frowned. "What are you saying?"

He looked nervous. "I shouldn't speak for Shepard. But I... I'd like it if you were with us. I think we belong together, Tali, you, and Shepard, and I. I'm sorry, I didn't realize you felt... left out. If I did, I could have..."

Tali's eyes narrowed. "You'd better not be just saying this out of pity, Garrus Vakarian."

"No! I really... I mean, we should talk to Shepard..." He sighed, lifted his left hand and fiddled with his eyepiece. "I'm not good at this stuff."

"What stuff? Talking?" She slid her arms around him and pressed into him, not quite believing her own boldness. His arms went around her, hesitant at first, then more firmly. "You never seemed to have difficulty talking before," she said.

He laughed, with real humor this time. She could feel it rumbling against her, even through the suit. "The problem is the emotional stuff. You can ask Shepard."

She smiled, and hugged tighter. "You're lucky you're kind of adorable."

"Uh... thanks, Tali. That's... totally not emasculating, at all. Wait a minute!" He pulled back. Startled, Tali looked up. Garrus gave her his best cop look. "I thought the mere suggestion that we were together was so ridiculous you had to laugh. A lot."

"Aw, did I hurt your feelings?" She tilted her head to the side and smirked up at him. Getting only a stern glare in response, she reached up and rested her hand against the uninjured side of his face. "I changed my mind."

Footsteps rang on the walkway behind her. She tensed momentarily, afraid Ken or Gabby had come down to check something, but it was Shepard's voice she heard. "Tali? Are you okay? Oh, there you are."

Tali turned, to see Shepard regarding them with a raised eyebrow. "Am I missing out on something here?" he asked lightly.

Tali blushed, and opened her mouth, but wasn't sure what to say. Garrus beat her to it.

"Actually," he said, resting his hands on her shoulders, "Tali was feeling left out. I thought we should talk to you about it."

Shepard blinked, and slowly broke into a grin. "Really?" He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. "Yeah, we should talk about that."


	4. Chapter 4

They had a very careful conversation about how to make things work, and about what she wanted.

"Okay," said Shepard at length. "Since you're determined to ditch the suit, I think we should concentrate on you this first time. Anything you want. As good as possible."

Garrus nodded. "I agree."

Tali took a deep breath, letting herself put words to thoughts she hadn't quite dared name. "Then what I want is... both of you."

Shepard's brows went up. "At the same time?" She nodded, flushing a little, but he grinned. "I like it."

Garrus said, dryly, "Well, we do work well together."

They laughed, and talked a little more. After, they had another, very awkward conversation with a highly amused Mordin Solus about how to keep things as safe as possible for her. Mordin favored a simple approach: load up an antibiotics and immunoboosters before, wash thoroughly after.

So now here she was, back in Shepard's quarters.

This time, her partners were very much awake.

Shepard detached her faceplate and pulled it away, giving her a smile. Tali smiled back, blinking at the change in light, trying to remember the last time anyone saw her naked face. "You're beautiful," he murmured, and leaned in to kiss her. Her first kiss; his lips were softer than she would have thought, and hot against hers, gentle pressure growing more urgent. His tongue bumped against her lips, so she opened them, let him enter her mouth, tongue twisting against hers, just a brief contact that made her flush. He pulled away, and she caught her breath, warmth spreading through her. Feeling bold, she turned to Garrus and pulled his face down to hers.

"Uh, Tali, turians don't-" he started, but she stopped him by pressing her lips against his mouth. A totally different sensation, smooth and firm with just a little flex, not completely rigid. She imitated Shepard and flicked her tongue into his mouth, skimming against pointed teeth, finding his own, raspier tongue. They tasted completely different, but she hadn't the words to describe their flavors. Garrus made a soft, surprised noise, and Shepard laughed.

"He wouldn't let _me_ kiss him," he said. "I think I should be offended."

Tali laughed. No, giggled, she admitted to herself. She felt a little giddy, as if the very air were intoxicating, and her suit had been filtering it out all the time. "Attack from stealth," she suggested.

"I think I'm the one of us most qualified to do that," grumbled Garrus, and then cocked his head at her. "Your voice sounds different without the filters."

"It does?" It didn't sound different to her.

"Yeah," said Shepard. "More resonant, maybe?" He smiled. "Let's see what else that suit has been concealing."

They detached her suit together, bit by bit. Tali was going to show them how, but Garrus was affronted: "Hey, I did the research. We've got this." It was true; they detached the connections and removed the components carefully and correctly. She stood still and let them. Just the feeling of air on her exposed skin was heavenly, setting her tingling with unaccustomed sensation. The feeling of _fingers_ on her skin was even better; Garrus first brushed accidentally against her arm, then slowly, deliberately stroked her naked arm from shoulder to wrist. His hands were hotter than she'd realized, slightly dry and rough, but the contact made her catch her breath. Shepard's hands, lingering on her hip, were smoother. She felt almost overwhelmed with the differences in heat and texture.

She was bared to them at last. Her momentary anxiety that they might find her body strange or unattractive was dispelled quickly, as two sets of hands explored her, setting her heart racing.

Shepard leaned in to kiss her again, and urged her down onto the bed with him. The kiss grew more insistent, as his hands traced the curve of her waist and hip. She let her own hands wander over him, exploring the angle of his jaw, along his shoulders, feeling the flex of muscle beneath skin. She found he had nipples, as she did; rubbing her thumb across one made him gasp into her mouth. Garrus settled behind her, lightly rubbing her back, working his way down to squeeze her ass, making her giggle. He chuckled back, rumbling somewhere deep in his chest, and slid his hands around, cupping her breasts. She moaned outright as he traced circles around her nipples, and felt Shepard smile against her lips before he kissed a line across her cheek and jaw. She let her hands move lower, feeling the light tracing of hair become thicker, and then closed her fingers gently around his hard, hot erection. Garrus's was pressed into the back of her thigh, she realized, and thrilled for a moment at the knowledge that they were as turned on as she was. Shepard groaned and pressed into her hand, as she cautiously slid her fingers up and down him. He laid his hand over hers to stop her. "Hey now, the plan was to concentrate on you this time."

"I want to learn you too," she protested.

"Mm. Then let's not neglect our friend here." Shepard pushed on her shoulder, and she rolled over to face Garrus, who gave her an uneven grin. She smiled back, running her hands over his chest, testing the sensation of plate that looked hard, but gave to the touch, and shifted as he breathed. She found that the softer hide along his side and belly was gratifyingly sensitive, making him moan and tighten his grip on her hips. Now Shepard rested behind her, his chest flush against her back, lightly kissing the back of her neck. "Let me show you something," he murmured, and settled his left hand over hers, four fingers interlaced with her two. She let him guide her hand upwards, stroking along Garrus's collar (which made him groan again, and arch into her, and she remembered how she'd touched him there, what seemed like ages ago). Her hand and Shepard's together traveled up the back of Garrus's neck, digging in along the overlapping scales that protected his spine, massaging upwards to a softer spot just below his fringe. Garrus closed his eyes and shuddered, and slid one hand downward, stroking between her legs.

She found herself gasping-it was already so good, to feel them both against her body, but she wanted more. "Please," she whimpered, and then couldn't even find the words to articulate what she wanted.

"Mm," said Shepard. "What do you think she needs now, Garrus?"

"I might have an idea or two," he said.

Somehow she ended up on her back between them, while Shepard teased one breast and Garrus curled his tongue, hot and flexible, around the other. She could hardly even think any more, and when Shepard bent his head to her nipple and sucked, she moaned and spread her legs, her body begging for touch. Shepard slid a finger into her, and she almost sobbed at the feeling she'd been craving for so long; and when Garrus's finger joined Shepard's, she did cry out. They moved in tandem, as they did in combat, slowly at first, then faster, finding the spots both inside and outside her that made her tremble and moan, the pleasure building up until she screamed, waves of sensation crashing through her from her core to her fingertips.

She took a few moments to collect herself and catch her breath, and heard her partners shift on either side of her. She opened her eyes to find them handling each other, giving her the perfect opportunity to look them over. They were shaped a little differently, Garrus long, tapered, and a little curved, while Shepard was shorter and a bit thicker. Garrus threw his head back and growled, softly, as Shepard stroked him. Her own breath quickened, and a thrill ran down her spine, settling into her groin with a throb. She sat up to catch Garrus's wrist and pull him down with her.

He came to her eagerly, with a chuckle that turned into a rumble as she pulled him close, lavishing kisses over his neck and collar. He caressed her thigh as she hooked it over his hip, rubbing against his slim waist, and Shepard's warm hands behind her helped her open herself to him. "Yes, yes, please," she was saying, and Garrus slid into her, slow but steady, the deep rumble in his chest vibrating through both of them. She felt deliciously full, and though his thrusts were slow at first, the sensation was deeper and stronger than anything she'd felt before. She clutched him and moaned, her body arching. Shepard lay close behind her, hands on her hips, and she could feel his erection against her when she rocked back in time with Garrus. "Yes, Garrus, yes," she said, and caught enough breath to add, "Shepard, please... I want you both..."

Garrus slowed, and Shepard moved against her, gently; she relaxed as much as she could, and gasped as he pressed slowly into her rear opening. It stung just a little, but beneath that it felt so _good_, her every nerve thrumming, and Garrus nuzzled his face against her neck and shoulder, rumbling, and she nearly melted from the vibration and the heat and the contrast of their bodies so close to her. Shepard groaned as he slid fully into her. For a moment they were all still, and she reveled in the sheer sensation, both of them nestled thick and hot and _real_ inside her, stretching and filling her. No mere fantasy this time, the three of them fully and truly united.

Then she wriggled, experimentally, and Garrus moved against her again, and gradually they found a new rhythm, all three of them moving together. Her own voice sounded hoarse to her ear, moaning and crying out continually, and both of them were just as inarticulate as they picked up speed. The sensation built up, she lost track of everything but the feel of hot skin and sweat against hers, the sound of all their gasps and groans, almost in harmony. She felt as though she was on fire from the inside out, and then Garrus's movements grew erratic, and he shuddered, moaning against her skin. She could feel him pulsing deep inside her, and that pushed her over the edge, arching and trembling between them, and then Shepard made a last thrust and groan, and she felt him throbbing within her, too. She tried to catch her breath, hearing them panting on either side of her, as they all gradually cooled down. Tali felt boneless, her muscles utterly pliant, lying limp between them, all three of them holding each other tight.

Tears gathered in her eyes. She'd had plenty of experience with her nerve stimulator, even using it with partners, but she had _never_ felt this way before, joined with her two dearest friends. In spite of everything, exile, the geth, the Reapers, for this hour everything seemed in perfect order.

She'd probably pay for it next cycle with a terrible fever, but it had been totally and completely worth it.


End file.
